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The government has yet to make any move to enact a law that would require formation of an independent search committee for appointing a new Election Commission after the tenure of the current EC expires in early February.

Elections to Dhaka south and north city corporations will be held under the next Election Commission to be constituted on expiry of the tenure of the incumbent EC, LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said yesterday.

The wounds remain as fresh as they were four decades ago. The memories of those done to death by the murder squads of the collaborators of the Pakistan occupation forces are, forty years on, as agonising as the moment when we first discovered that they had been abducted, that indeed they had been subjected to a macabre end by elements unwilling to have their masters from the west lose the war and that, having lost the war, were not willing to have the new nation of Bangladesh arise purposefully out of the ashes of what had turned out to be a tragic phase of history.

Incidents of extra-judicial killing and torture of innocent people by law enforcers are rampant in the country although Bangladesh has committed to the United Nations to stop such violation of human rights, a report says.

Had the then BDR officials acted on the rebels' leaflet distribution in Pilkhana, the February 25-26, 2009, mutiny would not have taken place, suggested a defence counsel during cross-examination yesterday.

Editorial

It is almost a month since the prime minister met in an emergency meeting with all stock market stakeholders to think a way out to stymie the continuous plunge of the index. A week thereafter, a number of decisions were taken whereby it was thought that these would be able to stop the freefall. The market rose a little and then the downfall began again.

In the passing away of Professor Kabir Chowdhury, the nation has lost a leading light, who wielded considerable influence on the national thought process by his writings and spoken words. Living to the fullness of his life, he spent his waking hours productively, creatively and compassionately leaving a versatile legacy in scholarship, literary output including translation, and above all, as an articulate voice against orthodoxy and communalism in any shape or form.

Sports

With exactly two weeks left for cricket authorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan to reach a consensus on which board will select the ICC (International Cricket Council) vice-president candidate for 2012, the nod of approval from some of the game's bigwigs in this country gave former BCB president Saber Hossain Chowdhury a slight advantage.

The two-day inter-club players' transfer of Dhaka Premier League will kick off today at the Bangabandhu National Stadium with the main talking point surrounding the fate of Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal whose move to a new club is still hanging in the balance.

Under fire coach Nikola Ilievski is planning for a monthlong vacation to native Macedonia. The 57-year old coach who oversaw Bangladesh's first round exit from the SAFF Championship recently, has asked for a leave of up to January 10 to Bangladesh Football Federation yesterday. He also submitted the report on the team's failure at the championship.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the India captain, has said how his team utilise their time in Australia in the lead-up to the first Test will determine the outcome of the series. "It depends on how we prepare ourselves during the 12 days before the Test match and how we adapt to the conditions," Dhoni said. "Most of the batsmen have played there before. We are hoping we will do well there."

At least 90 physically handicapped, most of them mentally-challenged children took part in special games at Pabna Stadium where the Special Olympics Sub-Chapter of Pabna organised the first of such tournaments yesterday.

Chelsea inflicted a first league defeat of the season on Premier League leaders Manchester City after substitute Frank Lampard secured a 2-1 victory from the penalty spot at Stamford Bridge here on Monday.

Citycell Federation Cup Basketball Competition begins at the Dhanmondi Basketball Gymnasium today with ten teams scheduled to participate. The ten teams, divided in two groups will compete in round robin format before the smifinals and final.

Grand Master Niaz Murshed, Grand Master Ziaur Rahman and Shafik Ahmed lead the Walton 37th National Chess Competition points table with maximum points after the end of the second round yesterday. The first GM of the country Niaz defeated Mehedi Hasan Porag while the highest rated player Zia beat Mahfuzur Rahman Emon at the Bangladesh Olympic Association media room yesterday. Shafik beat Monir Hossain to share the lead with the two GMs.

Business

Many of the country's garment factories are running below their capacity as they are receiving fewer export orders due to a volatile economic situation in the western markets, said a top apparel trade body yesterday.

As many as 1,491 directors of 200 listed companies have less than 2 percent stakes in their own firms. It means half of directors among all listed companies dumped a bulk of shares into the public market in the last couple of years.

The Dhaka bourse yesterday disagreed with a comment that the prime minister intervened in the troubled stockmarket for the failure of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the finance ministry to play their due roles.

India's largest state-owned power producer NTPC Ltd will provide operation and maintenance services to Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB) to run a 2x120 megawatt gas-based peaking power plant in Siddhirganj.

Emirates Airlines sees good business opportunities for the aviation sector in Bangladesh thanks to its widening middle class, increasing links with the global economy and a rising number of holiday travellers.

Speakers have lamented at a roundtable that the expectations for which the country was liberated in 1971 have not been fulfilled in 40 years due to political conflicts, military interventions, and patronisation of militancy and anti-liberation forces in politics.

Three former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials and a Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) leader yesterday appealed to a Dhaka court to discharge them from the August 21 grenade attack case.

The newly appointed Canadian High Commissioner in Dhaka Heather Cruden yesterday said that she would work for deepening and strengthening ties with Bangladesh focusing on development, trade and mutual interests.

Referring to a former Indian minister's proposal to grab Bangladeshi land, BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said it helps to understand the attitude of some Indian politicians about Bangladesh.

Speakers at a programme yesterday said the war criminals should be tried immediately not to extract revenge, rather for providing justice to the family members of the martyrs during the War of Liberation in 1971.

BBC Janala, the multi platform English language learning initiative by the BBC World Service Trust, Bangladesh, has received two international awards in acknowledgement of its innovative initiative of using information and communication technology for development.

National

Three people died in last two days while at least 23 others are still in critical condition due to food poisoning after taking khichui at an Urs (religious congregation) in Saidpur upazila of Nilphamari district on Sunday morning.

Twenty-two killing grounds and mass graves in the district, bearing testimony to the barbaric massacres by the Pakistan occupation forces during the 1971 Liberation War, are now hardly recognisable to visitors as the authorities concerned have failed to take any initiative to preserve those.

A passenger shade alongside Boda-Debigonj road in Shakowa Bus Stand area under Boda upazila of Panchagarh district was demolished allegedly by a local influential man, ignoring people's plea. Locals said Md Bulbul alias Bulbul Master of the area, bulldozed the shade claiming ownership of the land to build a market. Earlier, locals submitted a petition to Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Zohirul Islam in this regard on Saturday but to no effect. However, denying receiving the written complaint, the UNO said he was informed about the matter orally and referred it to secretary of Panchagarh Zila Parishad as it was the proper authority. Contacted, Secretary of the zila parishad Mahbub Ul Alam said their engineers visited the spot and were preparing to file a case. The shade was built in 1985.

Criminals stabbed a schoolteacher in Shankarpur area of the district town on Monday night. The Injured, Paritosh Chandra Roy, headmaster of Sarapor Primary School, was admitted to Jessore General Hospital. Police quoted locals as saying that a gang of three, riding a motorcycle attacked Paritosh, leaving him seriously injured.

Three thatched houses were gutted in a fire at Gazinagar village in Dakkhin Sunamganj upazila on Monday. Locals said the flame originated from a house in the afternoon and soon engulfed two other adjacent houses. Being informed, a fire fighting unit from Sunamganj Fire Station rushed to the spot and doused the blaze after an hour of frantic efforts. The affected house owners claimed the fire damaged the valuables worth about Tk 2 lakh.

A man allegedly committed suicide over a family dispute at Mendah Shahpara village in Bhangura pazila on Monday. The deceased is Sohel Rana, 27, son of late Hasem Ali Saha of the village. Family sources said Rana took poison following the feud and fainted. He was rushed to a local hospital where the doctors declared him dead.

Letters

We are shocked at the news that medical staff in an Indian hospital abandoned their patients and fled for safety as fire and smoke engulfed the building, leaving 73 people dead. Reportedly many of them died from smoke inhalation. We have learnt from the news reports that at the time of the blaze, there were 160 patients in the 190-bed hospital annex.

For some unknown reason we always fail to express our patriotism. The time has come and some of us are hoping to celebrate the coming Victory Day in a unique manner. I urge everyone, those who use Facebook, to change their profile pictures to our national flag, only till 16th December. Just imagine, the whole Facebook world will be adorned with green and red in our Victory Day! The freedom fighters did so much to earn us this flag, can't we even do this for them? This will be a unique expression of our patriotism and will also show the world what the martyrs did to earn us this motherland. I hope all the people who take pride in calling them Bangladeshi will do this.

Bangladesh really bowled and fielded well in the final One-Day match against Pakistan. They bowled out the strong visitors for 177 runs. Bangladesh team was in a commanding position, 74 for 1 wicket, and was about to win the match. But what went wrong? Why could not our boys continue their performance? They were bowled out for 119. All that was required then was patience and to flick the ball all around for singles or couple of runs to reach the small target of 177. What a shame!

Smog is spread over the city's sky like a canopy which is caused by severe air pollution; it is so thick that it seems we can almost touch it. As no steps are being taken, the pollution is increasing day by day posing a threat to healthy living. Already a great number of people are suffering from a host of serious diseases related to air pollution. We are feeling deeply upset because if the matter does not get its due importance, we will be doomed, our nation will become a sick one with no future.

An astonishing and ridiculous movement has been going on in Jahangirnagar University. The officers and staff who have arranged this movement are demanding admission opportunity for their children under Possho (dependant) quota.

Corruption has become a buzzword in Bangladesh. It is a curse to the nation. In a corrupt society, people's lives are miserable because everywhere corruption gives rise to exploitation. If we fail to curb corruption right now, our next generation will experience a dark future. We don't want that corruption should control our lives; we want a life with dignity.

After long twelve years, the Bangladesh team got an opportunity to beat Pakistan team in One Day cricket again. But our team failed to utilise its home ground advantage. It could have been a morale booster victory for Bangladesh team ahead of much important test series. We witnessed, much to our agony, irresponsible, pointless and reckless batting display by the Bangladeshi batsmen. The way our team lost the wickets made us frustrated. The dew factor was working in favour of Bangladeshi batsmen and Pakistani bowlers had no clue how Shahriar Nafees and Mahmudullah were batting. Pakistan was losing its grip on the match and then suddenly our batsmen started to lose their concentration. It was a match which can be tagged as “how to lose a winning match”!

The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has complained against some members of the civil society. To some extent I support her. The members of this group are intellectuals, former high ranking officials, veteran politicians, retired army officers, economists, philosophers, professors, eminent lawyers and so on. They are of course respectable persons of society. But they hold certain political beliefs and so they are not fully neutral. About a month ago, I wrote a letter in the DS titled "All are not wrong." Many of the civil society members do not see any positive side of the government actions. They find everything wrong. They never give any hope to the citizens, they only spread frustration among people. Every government has some successes and failures, but the civil society members only see the failures. Instead of giving people hope, they confuse them. Most people expect them to be neutral.

Security forces shot dead 17 people in Syria yesterday and rebels killed seven police in an ambush, activists said, after the UN human rights chief put the death toll from nine months of protest against President Bashar al-Assad at 5,000.

Laid-off workers complaining about unpaid wages disrupted a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday by shouting and throwing objects including shoes, news websites and an agency reported.

Arts & Entertainment

The Pakistani army wanted me to sign a statement that said the situation of the then East Pakistan was calm and no genocide was taking place here. Sufia Kamal and I refused to sign that statement although our lives were on the line. They [Pakistani occupation forces] then printed a statement putting our names on it but without our signatures.

Commemorating the 86th birth anniversary of master filmmaker Ritwik Kumar Ghatak, a three-day programme was held recently in Rajshahi. The programme, organised by Ritwik Ghatak Film Society, was held at the Rajshahi Homeopathic Medical College in Ghoramara.

On the eve of their unconditional surrender to the Bangladesh-India Joint Command on December 16, the Pakistani army with their local collaborators, brutally killed hundreds of leading intellectuals of the country, as part of a master plan to academically cripple the soon to be liberated nation. Every year the nation mourns December 14 as the Martyred Intellectuals Day. Streams of people will visit the Martyred Intellectuals Monument at Rayer Bazar today. According to Banglapedia, the dead intellectuals include an estimated 991 teachers, 13 journalists, 49 physicians, 42 lawyers, and 16 writers, artists and engineers. Their sacrifice, and the reason for the sacrifice, has made them immortals. The nation's freedom was born through their collective sacrifice. An installation depicting the brutality was held at the Shilpakala Academy premises as part of their month long victory day celebrations.

Eminent dancer and choreographer Shamim Ara Nipa and Shibli Mohammad will wing there way to attend the Bangladesh Cultural Festival in Calgary, Canada to be held on 23rd and 24th December at Hayatt Regency Hotel. Noted singers Sabina Yasmeen, Andrew Kishor, Hasan Abidur Reza Jewel and several other singers will also participate in the festival.

OP-ED

Back in the mid-1970s, Greek tragedy -- of Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles -- came alive for us at the English Department of Dhaka University. And it did so because Professor Kabir Chowdhury was there to enlighten us on the subject. The theme of tragedy as it had come to be shaped in ancient Greece, as indeed it would someday percolate down to the world of Shakespeare, was what Professor Chowdhury educated us on.

The stock market in Bangladesh is at a primeval stage of development. The fundamentals are very flimsy and fragile. The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) experienced massive price volatility in November. It saw both sides of the coin within two trading days! Although investing in the stock market is risky, people invested for the future because of their exuberance. As more people invested in the stock market, stock prices began to rise.

The most important outcome of education is, of course, to teach someone to think independently and out of the box. Some questions can be raised as to the effectiveness of education in introducing such changes in a person. How certain are we be about the role of education in making this happen?